General Motors’ FT is one of the most momentous locomotives in history as it convinced all but a few die-hards in the railroad industry that Diesels would replace steam locomotion. The first four-unit FT was completed in late 1939 and … Continue reading
I previously noted that GM artists first made a “foundation drawing” of each class of locomotive and then painted color schemes over that drawing. However, it is apparent from the data cards presented yesterday that multiple foundation drawings were made … Continue reading
Fourteen railroads bought a total of 117 E6 locomotives, and Palumbo provided nine data cards, two of which were from the same railroad. I’ll present about half today and half tomorrow and do so in the approximate order in which … Continue reading
Before 1940, railroads were used to custom ordering their locomotives, and initially General Motors followed that model, individualizing each run of Diesels for its purchaser. The smooth-faced E1 was sold only to Santa Fe; the bulbous-faced E2 was sold to … Continue reading
From about 1935 to 1940, Leland Knickerbocker and Paul Meyer worked for General Motors Art & Color Department helping to style locomotives made by GM subsidiary Electro-Motive Corporation. In 1941, when GM combined EMC and Winton Engines to form Electro-Motive … Continue reading
Bern Hill has sometimes been listed as a General Motors artist. Of course, he never worked directly for General Motors; he worked for the Kudner advertising agency. But General Motors did have its own artists who worked for a department … Continue reading
In addition to images by Bern Hill, Greg Palumbo was nice enough to provide Streamliner Memories readers a number of booklets and other images from General Motors’ locomotive past. This particular booklet is a speech made by GM President Harlow … Continue reading
About a dozen Railway Age covers after 1953 are unsigned and cannot definitely be attributed to Bern Hill by another criteria. Here, I’m going to look at these covers to see if they look like Hill’s style or that of … Continue reading
In 1954 through 1956, Kudner commissioned several artists addition to Bern Hill and Ralph Brillhart to paint GM locomotives to use for Railway Age covers. I’ll present as many as I can from either Greg Palumbo’s collection or from Google … Continue reading
In the 1960s through the 1980s, Ralph Brillhart became known for painting spacemen and aliens for covers of science fiction books. But before that, he painted at least eleven pictures of General Motors locomotives for Kudner to place on the … Continue reading
